DIGITALLY REWIRED

I read something very disturbing today in Leadership Journal.  It was a very short article focused on “The Isolation Generation”.  Young guys…plugged in, and disconnected.  I had to ask, “Is this really true?”

Psychologist Philip Zimbardo describes young guys having what he calls “arousal addiction”, always wanting something different.  He describes excessive internet use, video gaming, and online porn as causes of this new addiction.  By age 21, boys spend 10,000 hours gaming, two-thirds of that time in isolation.  The average young man watches 50 porno clips per week.

“Boys’ brains are being digitally rewired in a totally new way, for change, novelty, excitement, and constant arousal,” Zimbardo says.

The current upshot of this is that many young men do not connect well to traditional teaching settings and lack social skills, especially with women.

As technology opens up more and more virtual worlds to us, parental wisdom is going to be in great demand.  How do we make sure our kids are not adversely influenced by even the innocent participation in video games or good internet sites, let alone the bad stuff?  How much is too much?  Where does the internet and video games fit in the overall behavioral development of our children?  The internet and gaming is inescapable, but to what level of participation and control do we as parents need to commit?

Just a thought, if you haven’t already, take time to put a game plan together for your kids so that you play the primary role in this area of their behavioral development rather than leave it up to them or others.  

LEAVE NOTHING ON THE TABLE

That phrase is an intriguing one.  It alludes to the fact that in life we want to take utmost advantage of everything available to us.  In negotiations we want to walk away knowing we got everything we possibly could.  The sports world has similar phrases.  Leave nothing on the field (football).  Leave nothing on the floor (basketball).  Contestants will expend everything they have mentally and physically to win.

Christians are Christ’s team engaging the enemy for the victory of Christ’s Kingdom in the lives of man.  And in our play book, one of the strategic elements for victory is corporate prayer.

The subject and practice of prayer has filled many sermons, books and testimonies.  It is referenced throughout the pages of Scripture almost as a given.  In fact it is assumed prayer is a natural activity of a child of God.  We all talk to God often informally in the course of daily events, and sometimes more formally in a dedicated time of prayer and devotion.  In January we focused three sermons on prayer and then ended with something called a Concert of Prayer on January 29^th.  And what a great night it was.  About 250 adults assembled to pray.  It may be the largest corporate prayer gathering the church has seen.  But we dare not let it end there.   Individual and family prayer times are important engagements for Christians, but it is the times of corporate prayer in the book of Acts that really get my attention.  Does God work through the prayers of the church body when it is assembled to pray, in ways He does not in any other format?  Corporate prayer in the early church had a power I long for.  The Prayer Mobilization Team is planning for three additional corporate prayer times in 2012.  Watch for dates and details.  We have a lot to pray for as we long to see God’s power at work.   I challenge us to leave nothing on the table.